Hi everyone. I'm putting this out there in order to try to help me decide whether or not to bother to try to have the amount of spousal support agreed to in our Separation Agreement varied. I'll try to stick to the facts that The Law will likely care about, and I'll try to keep emotion out of it:
- married June 1993
- separated July 2009
- divorced July 2010
- 2 children, now 14 & 15
- I have 100% physical custody/parenting (not sure of the nuances... both kids live with me full time)
- ex lives out of province (she moved to SK to be with family)
- agreement initially assumed that the kids would stay with ex and that ex would stay in Ontario. I agreed to pay CS IAW guidelines and $1000/month SS. We were in Trenton, I am now in Ottawa.
- in Agreement she "pledged" to seek full-time employment with a minimum annual income of $24K - but I did not impute it to her
- June 2009 she tried to take both kids out of province, kids declared intent to live with me, and did so right after the last day of school (so, 14 months or so now)
- neither of us requested support from the other, as things had changed. We had, I thought, a tacit agreement to leave each other alone.
- I just received notice from FRO that I am in arrears and that they are going to garnish my wages.
- I am not yet receiving CS, nor will it be a decent amount because she wont work (she just quit one part time job (min wage, 20 hours/week) in favour of another that offers the same wage/hours). Her work history is the same: Never held a job while we were married (despite a promise to do so) and drained the household finances in pursuit of home-based businesses - all of which she quit. In short, I don't have high hopes that she'll ever secure meaningful work.
- I just bought a house (a HOME!) for the kids and the $1000/month SS will cause some pretty scary financial hardship: With mortgage, insurance, bills, medical, etc., etc., I was about even (income vs expenses) before this development.
- There is SO much more to the story, but I doubt The Proverbial Judge would care, so I won't bother here.
In the long run, if she were forced to work I would come out ahead financially: SS is $1000, CS (based on $36K ($24K "promise" plus $12K SS) would be about $530, and I get half of my $1000 back in taxes. I'm already in the green, and I haven't even looked at Schedule 7 yet.
BUT... she won't work.
Ideally, I'd prefer what has been happening for the past year: I am raising the kids on my own, with my income, and things are fine. She hasn't been paying support and I don't need it so I don't ask for it. (Stoooopid, I know, but, well, that's me).
Failing that, what I'd like to see happen is have her income imputed per the amount she "pledged" to seek in the agreement, and have the SS reduced or even eliminated.
ALL I WANT is to leave my past life behind and provide a HOME for my kids. The financial situation as it is, is gonna get in the way of that.
Sorry to ramble so much. I am going to make an appt with my laywer (McGuinty) and go over options but I'd like to go in there with an idea of what to expect and what my chances are.
There is, no doubt, lots of pertinent info missing above. Please ask questions and I'll fill in.
Thanks gang,
Cheers!
Gary
- married June 1993
- separated July 2009
- divorced July 2010
- 2 children, now 14 & 15
- I have 100% physical custody/parenting (not sure of the nuances... both kids live with me full time)
- ex lives out of province (she moved to SK to be with family)
- agreement initially assumed that the kids would stay with ex and that ex would stay in Ontario. I agreed to pay CS IAW guidelines and $1000/month SS. We were in Trenton, I am now in Ottawa.
- in Agreement she "pledged" to seek full-time employment with a minimum annual income of $24K - but I did not impute it to her
- June 2009 she tried to take both kids out of province, kids declared intent to live with me, and did so right after the last day of school (so, 14 months or so now)
- neither of us requested support from the other, as things had changed. We had, I thought, a tacit agreement to leave each other alone.
- I just received notice from FRO that I am in arrears and that they are going to garnish my wages.
- I am not yet receiving CS, nor will it be a decent amount because she wont work (she just quit one part time job (min wage, 20 hours/week) in favour of another that offers the same wage/hours). Her work history is the same: Never held a job while we were married (despite a promise to do so) and drained the household finances in pursuit of home-based businesses - all of which she quit. In short, I don't have high hopes that she'll ever secure meaningful work.
- I just bought a house (a HOME!) for the kids and the $1000/month SS will cause some pretty scary financial hardship: With mortgage, insurance, bills, medical, etc., etc., I was about even (income vs expenses) before this development.
- There is SO much more to the story, but I doubt The Proverbial Judge would care, so I won't bother here.
In the long run, if she were forced to work I would come out ahead financially: SS is $1000, CS (based on $36K ($24K "promise" plus $12K SS) would be about $530, and I get half of my $1000 back in taxes. I'm already in the green, and I haven't even looked at Schedule 7 yet.
BUT... she won't work.
Ideally, I'd prefer what has been happening for the past year: I am raising the kids on my own, with my income, and things are fine. She hasn't been paying support and I don't need it so I don't ask for it. (Stoooopid, I know, but, well, that's me).
Failing that, what I'd like to see happen is have her income imputed per the amount she "pledged" to seek in the agreement, and have the SS reduced or even eliminated.
ALL I WANT is to leave my past life behind and provide a HOME for my kids. The financial situation as it is, is gonna get in the way of that.
Sorry to ramble so much. I am going to make an appt with my laywer (McGuinty) and go over options but I'd like to go in there with an idea of what to expect and what my chances are.
There is, no doubt, lots of pertinent info missing above. Please ask questions and I'll fill in.
Thanks gang,
Cheers!
Gary
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